With Love to Muhammad (sa) - The Khatam-un-Nabiyyin — Page 29
Alternative Qir ā ‘ ā t of the Qur’ ā n 29 these meanings are equally applicable to the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa and are only different ways of saying the same thing, that is, the Holy Prophet sa is the one who attests to the truth of past and future prophets. In other words, 33:41 would translate as follows (in the alternative qir ā ’ ā t ): َ G َ D a ا َ ان a ُ G َ ح َّ d َ ا a د َ ب َ ا a ا َ ح ً د a ِّ G ِّ ر a ن َ ج ِ اF ُ a ْ م a َ و a ِ aٰF َّ ر a ن ُ : َ ول a ِ اﷲ a َ و َ خ a َ اتِم ِّ iَِّبeFا ْ i ن Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of All ā h and the one who seals [or attests to the truth of] the prophets. This means that the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa is the one who placed the seal of authentication on the previous prophets and attested to their truth. He did this by fulfilling their prophecies and confirming the integrity of their claims to prophethood. The Holy Prophet sa is also the kh ā tim for future prophets, that is, he attests to the truth of all future prophets by having established a law or shar ī ’ah that no future prophet can break. Any future prophet who fails to comply with the law of the Qur’ ā n would be guilty of breaking the Holy Prophet’s seal of authority, thereby admitting to falsehood. This understanding also upholds the superiority of the Hij ā z ī qir ā ’ah used by the Muslims worldwide. It is obvious that we cannot use the inferior qir ā ’ ā t of the Qur’ ā n to impose a biased translation on the Hij ā z ī qir ā ’ah which clearly states that the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa is the Kh ā tam ( seal ), with the fatah on the letter t ā ’ , of the prophets. Nevertheless, this argument should not be taken to mean that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam ā ‘at rejects the fact that kh ā tim can mean last. As explained in the chapter entitled Meanings of Kh ā tam in Dictionaries , there are several meanings of this word and “last” is definitely one of those meanings. However, when